As I sat listening to a series of presentations by successful entrepreneurs at the University of Texas’s AT&T Conference Center in Austin for Texas Venture Week today, it became increasingly obvious that one particular factor was key to their success. And that was? Asia.
First there was Rodrigo Veloso, the Brazilian founder of the Pepsi-backed O.N.E. coconut water company. In the space of five years, Veloso has taken his company from zero to major supermarket chains such as Whole Foods, and national distribution. Today, he is responsible for processing 3 million coconuts a day. And how does he do it? With factories based in Indonesia and the Philippines, where coconuts are abundant and labor is cheap.
Next up was Viji Sundar, a Fortune 100 company employee who runs a consultancy for small businesses, called Butterfly Global Ventures, in her spare time. Technically, all her business is in the U.S. – but she was educated in India (and then, for grad school, in Kentucky).
Tony Centeno, a resident of West Texas and former marine, talked to the audience about his fashion advice website www.realmenrealstyle.com and online tailored-suit store www.atailoredsuit.com. Go figure where his fabrics come from (actually, he didn’t tell us, but the vast majority of textiles these days are sourced in Asia).
Veloso, Sundar, and Centeno represent three very different industries and utterly different backgrounds. Apart from their entrepreneurial drive, perhaps the only thing common to them is Asia.
Asia’s power – its cheap and abundant labor, its factory cities, its key links in supply chains – of course spills over into the wireless industry, too, whether it be in the manufacturing of semi-conductors, iPhones, or the steel that constitutes cellphone towers. And there’s no doubt that the young entrepreneurs sitting in attendance at the conference center will be looking to Asia to help power their emerging businesses – whether it be for manufacture and supply, or as an important customers. You only have to look as far as Facebook and GroupOn’s forays into China to realize how important that market is.
It might at this stage – after it has already been well established that, yes, Asia is a super-power in waiting – seem trite to suggest that we should all be paying close heed to what happens in the Far East. But today, in the middle of Texas and a room full of young, hopeful entrepreneurs, that message was being hammered home stronger than ever.
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